Sauron's POV
I sensed Morgoth's son and my daughter, they were near the ring! I could feel their emotions were high on fear, anger, and pain. They were afraid of me! I supposed I should have expected this, as they had been raised by my enemies. I heard Saruman communicating with me and I gave him these instructions. "Capture them all, bring them to me as you find them… I want them all alive."
As soon as he had accepted these instructions I thought of the children's mother, Mirë, her name meant diamond. We had captured her in a small town and thought her too pretty to kill, I could still recall the March home.
flashback*
"Master," I called to Morgoth as we observed the thralls we were taking back to Angband. The pretty eleth was in the front, setting the pace. "What are we to do with the thralls?" "Put them to work." "The elleth seems a bit… delicate for that, doesn't she?" Morgoth nodded in agreement. "She is."
"And yet," I added as we continued on the trail. "I do not feel as if I could feed her to the orcs." Morgoth nodded again. "If she was just a gem we had found," he muttered. "I would put her in my crown and guard her as I do the silmarils."
I smiled and said. "We are of the same mind then, what shall we do with her? I do not wish her to die, but I have no wish to release her." "Do not elves keep lesser beings for amusement?" Morgoth asked as he turned to me. "Yes, we could do the same… but we need to prepare a place for her." I said in response.
"She and the new thralls will have to stay in the dungeon for a few days then." He said. Suddenly the elleth stumbled and and an orc lashed out at her. Morgoth was there in the blink of an eye. "What were you doing, hmmm?" He asked as he held the thing in a painful pressure point. The orc was on its knees and struggled to get up.
"If I find so much as a bruise more then when we caught them on any of these thralls, I'll kill the whole lot of you!" He shouted to all of the orcs. He then stabbed the offender in the heart. He calmly walked back to me as the orcs cowered away from him. We watched the elleth get back to her feet and start walking more carefully along the trail.
She kept glancing back at us, but we never looked away. "I think that we should double their food rations tonight… what say you?" Morgoth asked on one occasion as she looked back. "Indeed, they shall need it to go along as fast as we want to go." I responded, knowing he only wanted to keep the elleth healthy.
That night I heard the elves speaking about this strange treatment. "Maybe they aren't so bad?" One said, another growled. "Didn't you see their soldiers? Eating our fallen before we left? They are evil." The elleth did not say one thing or another, but sat listening.
That morning, Morgoth and I decided to give them water more than once a day. Our reasoning? It was summer and the new thralls might die of dehydration. After a whole week of traveling, Morgoth ordered all the Thralls be placed in cells.
"And no one is to harm a single one, am I understood?" He asked the orc captains, they nodded and left. Then he turned to me. "You prepare a place for our… pet." He said with a smile. I nodded back, pleased that we truly were keeping her. I made the small room comfortable as possible and made sure the door's lock would work.
In the meantime, Morgoth interviewed the new thralls to see what they were fit for. When all was done he sent for the elleth. "Now," he said as she trembled before his throne. "What is it that you do?" She didn't respond and continued to shake. "Come, I know you are not mute! Speak up!"
"I am a healer." She said in a small voice, Morgoth was instantly interested. "Indeed?" He asked. "Can you heal these burns?" He showed her his burnt hands, she flinched at the closeness but looked.
"I think I can." She said in a still smaller voice.
"What is it you need?" Morgoth asked her as she trembled before him. "Goldenrod, garlic, poppyseeds, kingsfoil, oil, and warm water." She said, he turned away from her and ordered a thrall to get these things for her.
When it arrived she took some clean linens out of the bag we had allowed her to keep. She washed the injuries first, then mixed the herbs with the oil and gently rubbed the mixture on Morgoth's wounds, then she wrapped them in the cloth.
Morgoth's hands glowed a minute, then he took off the wrappings. "I am healed!" He said with pleasure. He looked down at the elleth. "You are owed thanks for this," he told her. "But you cannot be a healer for my lieutenant and I always… what to do with you?"
She again trembled before him as he pretended to think about it. "I know!" He said as if the idea had just come to him. "Lieutenant, have we not always wished for a pet?" He asked me I nodded solemnly. "Yes, we have long been wishing for one."
He turned back to the elleth, who was trembling badly. "What is your name, my pet?" He asked "Mirë." She said in her smallest voice yet. "Diamond, the name suits you! Mairon, take Mirë to the room we prepared for our pet.
I gently lead her down the halls and noticed her trembling had doubled. "What troubles you?" I asked gently. She burst into tears. "Please don't! Please don't" she begged as she fell to her knees. I soon understood what the trouble was. "No," I told her as I lifted her off the ground. "We will never do that without your consent my lady. Being our pet simply means you stay here and we come to see you, that is all. No harm shall come to you."
I brought her into the small room and bid her good night. I was eager for tomorrow.
end flash back*
As I came back to the here and now, I remembered she was gone… I growled, those useless orcs! I turned my attention back to the important thing: getting my ring and her children back. "I'll get them back Mirë," I promised her. "And soon."
